South Dakota will receive $3.6 million in a nationwide baby powder settlement with roots in the Mitchell Republic state

South Dakota will collect $3.6 million from Johnson & Johnson to settle allegations that the company marketed unsafe talc-based baby powder products to consumers.

The settlement is part of a $700 million agreement with 43 attorneys general over claims that Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products increase the risk of ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, one of the 43, announced the news in a press release on Tuesday, June 11.

“This lawsuit is about the safety and protection of babies and children,” Jackley said in a statement.

South Dakota’s share of the money, which will be paid in four installments, will go toward funding the operations of the Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Protection. That division, which handles consumer complaints for state residents, has five and a half investigators, according to Jackley spokesman Tony Mangan. The division has launched 15 formal investigations since July last year, he said, and has resolved about 1,700 complaints in 2023.

The settlement, as well as the years-long elimination of talc as a baby powder ingredient, has its roots in South Dakota.

In 2013, a federal jury in Sioux Falls ruled that resident Deane Berg’s decades-long use of Johnson & Johnson products containing talc contributed to her ovarian cancer in 2006. She sued in 2009. Berg’s case was the first in the US to establish a link between talc and cancer in a jury trial, but the jury did not award her damages.

Berg said she learned of the possible connection from a Sanford USD Medical Center brochure.

A scan of Berg’s cancerous tissue, performed years later as part of gathering evidence for the trial, showed talcum powder in her left ovary. The company claimed that Berg never proved a link, arguing that the tissue sample was likely contaminated at the hospital.

Studies from 1971 found a link between talc and cancer risk.

In 2016, a Missouri jury sided with the family of a woman who died of ovarian cancer, claiming that Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based body powders caused the disease. The jury awarded the family $72 million, the first monetary award in a case involving the long-suspected link between talc and ovarian cancer.

As part of the settlement announced Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson will stop manufacturing and selling its talc-based products in the U.S. In addition to the cancer risk allegations, the lawsuit alleged that the company targeted African-American and Hispanic women in its marketing to combat declining sales. .

The company admitted no wrongdoing, but stopped selling the products when the investigation began.

This story was originally published on SouthDakotaSearchlight.com.